🚨 HAPPENING RIGHT NOW 🚨
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian landed in New York on Tuesday for the UN General Assembly as demonstrators from dozens of states gathered outside UN headquarters calling for the regime’s ouster, even as President Trump said U.S. and Iranian officials held a three-hour meeting he called “very good” and predicted a deal was drawing closer. Tehran has offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz "within days", unfreezes Iranian assets, and ends military operations across the region — a proposal that comes as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent moves to shut Iranian airlines out of international operations starting Wednesday.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23rd, 2026
Before we get to today’s news, here’s what happened on this date in history. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark rolled back into St. Louis on September 23, 1806, closing out a 28-month, 8,000-mile expedition that had carried the Corps of Discovery to the Pacific and back — Clark wrote that the whole village turned out to greet them, and Lewis told President Jefferson it was a pleasure to report the safe return of “myself and party.”
A German astronomer named Johann Gottfried Galle pointed his telescope at a single patch of sky on this date in 1846 and became the first person to lay eyes on Neptune, confirming a planet that French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier had calculated must exist there based purely on the way it tugged at the orbit of Uranus.
🗳️ Trump Warns He’ll Be the ‘Last Republican President’ Without a Filibuster Fix
President Trump used Truth Social on Tuesday to warn Senate Republicans that he could be the last GOP president in the White House if they don’t eliminate the legislative filibuster, arguing Democrats will nuke the 60-vote threshold themselves the moment they’re back in power.
Trump argued that Democratic statehood for Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico would add four senators and eight House members, permanently tilting the electoral math against Republicans.
Ending the filibuster would let the GOP push through Trump’s legislative priorities, including the SAVE America Act, without needing a single Democratic vote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune pushed back, saying Republicans don’t have the votes to end the filibuster and warning colleagues not to “hand [Democrats] the keys.”
🇬🇱 Trump Signs Trilateral Security Deal Granting the U.S. Permanent Military Rights in Greenland
President Trump signed a trilateral security agreement with Denmark and Greenland on Tuesday at the UN General Assembly, granting the United States permanent control over security on the island and clearing the way for two new U.S. military bases there.
The deal authorizes the U.S. to modernize and expand Pituffik Space Base and establish new defense areas at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig, with Trump pledging to “immediately begin the process of developing a large military presence.”
It updates the 1951 U.S.-Denmark Defense Agreement and requires any non-NATO nation to get “express written permission” before operating militarily in Greenland.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen called it a “win-win-win agreement” building on 85 years of security cooperation among the three parties.
🎖️ Hegseth Unveils New Combat Test for Officers Seeking Their First Star
War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a new assessment called the Joint Warfighter Evaluation on Tuesday, requiring colonels and Navy captains up for their first general’s star to prove themselves in combat-like scenarios before promotion.
Hegseth said eligible O-6 officers screening for a one-star promotion will be tested on their “ability to fight, adapt, and win” starting this year.
The evaluation is billed as an “equalizer,” shifting weight away from traditional bureaucratic promotion criteria toward demonstrated battlefield performance.
It’s the latest piece of Hegseth’s broader push to rewrite how the Pentagon selects its senior leadership.
🚢 EU’s Top Diplomat Says Red Sea Mission Needs Double the Warships as Houthi Threat Grows
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told member states Tuesday that the bloc’s six-ship Red Sea naval mission, Operation Aspides, needs more than ten warships plus additional air support to keep pace with escalating Houthi attacks on shipping.
Kallas wrote to all 27 EU member states requesting more ships and aircraft, warning “the situation, I think, is even more grave right now” than when the mission launched in 2024.
The warning follows the Iran-backed Houthis’ claimed seizure of Perim Island near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a chokepoint Saudi Arabia uses to bypass the Strait of Hormuz entirely.
Italy isn’t waiting on Brussels — it has already scrambled its own warships toward the Red Sea on a unilateral deployment.
⚖️ Ninth Circuit Upholds Hawaii’s Gun-Permit Expiration and Inspection Rules
A divided Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 6-5 on Tuesday that Hawaii can keep two of its handgun regulations in place: a rule letting purchase permits expire after 30 days, and a requirement that newly bought firearms be inspected at a police station.
Judge John Owens, writing for the majority in Yukutake v. Lopez, called the rules “modest, procedural burdens” that don’t meaningfully block firearm ownership.
The case began when two Honolulu gun owners missed their 30-day permit window and had to restart the entire application process.
Dissenting Judge Ryan Nelson argued the rules fail the Supreme Court’s Bruen historical-tradition test and have no basis in the nation’s regulatory history.
— Townhall